Affiliations: Leads an army of
demonic beings;
briefly allied with the Hulk, formerly employed Empress Daydra
and the Sagittarian empire;
briefly possessed and controlled James Mandarin;
former pawn of Yandroth;
he has invoked for power Azathoth and Sominus, and presumably
others unidentified.

Powers/Abilities: The Dark-Crawler has
superhuman strength and durability, as well as undefined magical
abilities. His powers appear to wax and wane, from taking a
gigantic form with great physical and magical power, to that of a
more human form, possessing perhaps Class 25 strength.
Presumably, his powers vary with his location, being much greater
within his home dimension, other magical realms, or when summoned
by beings via magic, whereas his powers are greatly diminished in
a non-magical environment. He has a tail which can be used as a
blunt weapon. He can emit beams of sonic force from his crown.
Under certain cirumstances he can possess and control others,
open portals to other dimensions, and alter his shape at will.

He uses the Sceptre of Shadow to project "black
light," presumably a form of the Darkforce, which can blind
those trapped within its rays. In some cases, the Sceptre can
project solid beams that can ensnare and transport others. The
ray can be terminated by the shattering of the sceptre -- it
appears to be about as durable as ordinary glass -- but the sceptre
can be reformed, in some cases within a few hours time.

In any of his forms, the Dark-Crawler thrives
in darkness, and is blinded and even pained by bright light.

History: The Dark-Crawler's origins are
unknown, but he is from an unidentified extradimensional realm,
referred to only as the Dark-Crawler's Dark Dimension.

(Incredible Hulk II#126 (fb) - BTS) - There has
been a lengthy, "eternal" enmity between the Night-Crawler
and the Undying Ones, because his dimension serves as a pathway
to worlds beyond...such as Earth. Over a period of eons, the
Night-Crawler destroyed all beings that the Undying Ones had
arrayed and sent against him.

(Incredible Hulk II#126) - On Earth in the
modern era, Van Nyborg, the leader of a cult worshipping the
Undying Ones, drugged and captured Bruce Banner, and then cast a
spell that transported the Hulk to the realm of the Night-Crawler,
in hopes that the Hulk might destroy him. At first, Banner
resisted the change, and the Night-Crawler, assuming him to be
another agent of the Undying Ones, moved in for the attack. Van
Nyborg then sent Barbara Denton, a rebellious member of the cult,
to the realm as well, and the Night-Crawler grabbed her, again
assuming her to be another attacker. Banner allowed himself to
become the Hulk to save the girl, and engaged the Night-Crawler,
who cared little for the reasons for their visit, but felt they
must pay the price for crossing the forbidden border.

He blanketed the Hulk and Barbara in shadow,
and knocked the Hulk off of one of the floating islands of the
realm. However, while he couldn't see where he was, the Hulk could
feel another island as he landed on it, and he struck out at the
island in seemingly futile rage; but as the rock shattered,
it released a dazzling burst of light energy, which disrupted the
shadow power of the Sceptre of Shadows, allowing the Hulk to see
the Night-Crawler and approach him anew. As the Night-Crawler
prepared to unleash "far deadlier powers" from his
Sceptre, Barbara hurled a rock which shattered it.

Furious that the woman had accomplished -- via
the light energy of the rock -- what millennia of savage foes
failed to do, Night-Crawler grabbed Barbara and prepared to make
her pay the price. The Hulk leapt at the Night-Crawler and
knocked him away from Barbara, saving her, but then the Crawler
turned his sonic beams on the Hulk. The Hulk clapped his hands
together and created a backlash of sonic force, which interacted
with the Crawler's own to form a resonant frequency that
shattered all of the solid matter in the Dark Dimension. The
Night-Crawler then transported them all to the realm of the
Undying Ones, in order to save them from his own, collapsing
realm.

Upon arriving, the Night-Crawler turned his
rage upon the Nameless One and the rest of the Undying Ones, who
were responsible for the Hulk being sent to (and thus destroying)
his Dark Dimension. Dr. Strange, who has been imprisoned by the
Nameless One, was freed by the sacrifice of Barbara Denton, in
order to save her world. Dr. Strange teleported himself and the
Hulk back to Earth, and the Night-Crawler occupied the Nameless
One and the Undying Ones long enough that the stellar alignment
necessary for their entry into Earth had passed.

(Incredible Hulk II#269 (fb) - BTS) - The Night-Crawler
fought the Undying Ones in a battle without equal. He ultimately
triumphed over them and made their realm his own. He credited the
Hulk with causing him to finally open his eyes to the truth and
confront his real foes directly.
In conquering the Undying Ones, the Night-Crawler learned many of
their magical secrets.

(Marvel Fanfare I#8)
- Novice sorcerer James Mandarin used a spell from Van Nyborg's
book -- "The Secrets of Light and Shadow" -- with which he unwittingly
summoned the Night-Crawler, who brought him back to his realm.
Mandarin's girlfriend, Meredith, contacted Dr. Strange, and the
mage opened a portal to his Realm of Shadow. The Night-Crawler -- who
was most often referred to as the Slitherer -- used the power of
the Sceptre of Shadows to seal the Eye of Agamotto, and then
pulled Strange, Clea, and Meredith into his realm with tendrils
of shadow. There they were confronted by a Slitherer-possessed
James Mandarin, who was leading an army of demons,
planning to conquer Earth.

Mandarin wielded the Chaos Sword and rode a
flying horse against Strange, parrying his strongest spells, and
threatening to crack through his Shield of Seraphim. However,
Meredith was able to get through to James' mind and convince him
to throw off the Slitherer's control. Mandarin turned and
attacked the Slitherer, but was no match for him. Strange then
sent his astral self to join with Mandarin's body, empowering him
to break free from the Slitherer. Meredith then used her will to
summon a shield for the two combined sorcerers, and with the
shield to protect them, they managed to shatter the Slitherer's
Sceptre of Shadows (and cut off a few of his fingers/tentacles).
Without his sceptre of power, the Slitherer could not stand
against Strange, who banished him and his demons back to his realm.

(Incredible Hulk II#269 (fb) - BTS) - Under
uncertain circumstances, the Dark-Crawler was enlisted by Empress
Daydra of the Sagittarians to help oppose the Galaxy Master.
Alongside Torgo and the Amphibion, the Dark-Crawler was sent to
engage the Galaxy Master's agent, the Ravager of Worlds, who was
actually the Abomination. His power amplified even further by the
Galaxy Master, the Abomination easily drove off the three
warriors, who narrowly escaped.

In order to combat the power of this Ravager of
Worlds, Daydra and the three warriors decided to recruit the
strength of a being that they had all encountered in the past -- the
Hulk.

(Incredible Hulk II#269) - The Hulk-Hunters
arrived on Earth where they confronted Banner, who quickly became
the Hulk. Before they could explain that they were just searching
for the Hulk and not attempting to capture or destroy him, he
attacked them. The Hulk fought off all three of them until
Empress Daydra beamed down and revealed the true threat of the
Galaxy Master. The Hulk agreed to join them.

(Incredible Hulk II#270) - When the Amphibion
goaded the Hulk into another struggle, Dark-Crawler and Torgo
were forced to step in, holding back Amphibion and the Hulk,
respectively. Upon arriving, the Hulk was sent to engage the
Abomination, while the other three, now known as the Horror-Hunters,
were sent to oppose the Galaxy Master directly. As the rampaging
Hulk bludgeoned the Abomination, the Galaxy Master's defenses
weakened. In order to defend himself, the Galaxy Master summoned
the Abomination to his side, but the Hulk was brought along with
him. The Hulk attacked the Galaxy Master, while the Hunters
fought the Abomination, from whom the Galaxy Master had removed
his power amplification. When the Hulk destroyed the Galaxy
Master, the Abomination collapsed in defeat as well.

(Defenders II#1) - The Night-Crawler -- now a 25'
tall powerhouse -- was one of the beings summoned to Earth by
Yandroth by power usurped from Gaea. He was enraged at being thus
transported, and threatened Dr. Strange, ordering him to tell him
why and how he was there, or he would destroy both him, "your
insignificant planet--and all those who dwell thereon!"When the Defenders defeated Yandroth, all those he had
summoned to Earth were returned to their respective realms.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and Herb
Trimpe.

Yeah, he's the original Night-Crawler, but
after Giant-Size X-Men#1, he was nice enough to refer to himself
almost exclusively as the Dark-Crawler, so as to avoid confusion
with a certain teleporting mutant.

Everyone who writes the Dark-Crawler seems to
have their own ideas about him.

When written by Roy , he was a somewhat
belligerent, ancient, extradimensional warrior, with
great powers and great size (9' tall?).

When written by Bill Mantlo (1981), he was
the weakest of the Hunters, limited to using his Sceptre
of Shadows, and not being really strong enough to engage
the Hulk or the Abomination in hand-to-hand combat. In
addition, he was a cool cucumber, and, along with Torgo,
served as the voice of reason between the hot-headed
Amphibion and Hulk.

When written by Peter Gillis (in a story
that came out in 1983, but that took place "quite
awhile before Dr. Strange II#53," which came out
about the same time as Hulk#269+270), he was this evil,
demonic, slithering entity, bent on conquering Earth.

When written by Busiek and Larsen (2001),
he was more of a cross between Thomas and Gillis'
versions. He was a physical being, perhaps 25' tall,
prepared to conquer Earth.

My theory is that he is a magical being,
and while his original form and personality at closest to
his true nature, he can be summoned or manipulated by
others, and used for good (as with Daydra against the
Galaxy Master), or evil (when involved with James
Mandarin, or when summoned by Yandroth), depending on who
summons him and for what purpose. Why else would this
extradimensional being come to the Earth dimension, just
to fight the Galaxy Master, or the Abomination?
While that story, Hulk#269+270, would have been fine if
it were the only further appearance of the Dark-Crawler,
his two subsequent appearances (including one which took
place before the Galaxy Master story) really make his
power and behavior from that story seem uncharacteristic.
My guess is Daydra, or one of her assistants, cast a
spell to summon the Dark-Crawler, and then used it to
keep him in line. They were able to control him well, at
the expense of markedly dampening his power.

Or maybe he's a magically empathic being,
whose powers and emotions are significantly influenced by
the presence of magic, as well as its nature (black or
white magic).

Or maybe there's more than one being, with
the Slitherer from Marvel Fanfare being a demon that
merely posed as the Dark-Crawler.

or maybe it's just fiction...nah!

Eon can just mean an immeasurably long time
period, or it may refer to a period of 1 billion years, as in
geology.

Here's a little piece of trivia some of you
younger fans may not know: Barbara Denton -- the woman who was in
the Cult of the Undying Ones, but was then sent to the Dark
Dimension as punishment by Van Nyborg -- may be better recognized
by her married name, Barbara Norriss. She's the one whose body
was converted into the form of the Valkyrie, of the Defenders,
and who served as the form of Brunnehilde until she eventually
regained her true form in Defenders I#109(?)

Personally, I think Dark-Crawler would have made a better--(or, at least, more logical)--birth-father for Kurt Wagner than Azazel.--Carycomic

Dark-Crawler got a full entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Dark-Crawler, aka Night-Crawler, the Slitherer, and the Worm of
Darkness, should be distinguished from:

The DARKFORCE DIMENSION, the source
of the black energy known as the Darkforce, accessed by a
large number of superhumans. The fact that Dark-Crawler
apparently utilizes the Darkforce does not make his realm
the Darkforce Dimension then it does the realm of anyone
else who uses the Darkforce, such as Darkstar of Earth.
However, the Dark-Crawler does seem to be a shadowy
creature, so, who knows? If Dark-Crawler does utilize the
Darkforce, then Incredible Hulk II#126 may be the first
appearance of the Darkforce.

An extradimensional
realm formerly ruled by the Dark-Crawler. It was composed mostly
of floating rocks in a breathable atmosphere. When shattered, the
rocks released blinding light. The entire realm apparently
collapsed from a resonant sonic frequency released during a
struggle between the Dark-Crawler and the Hulk.

Presumably the Dark-Crawler has found a new
Realm of Shadows to inhabit, or else his original realm has been
restored. Perhaps his new Shadow Realm is the former realm of the
Undying Ones.

An unnamed group of beings, possibly demons or
just extradimensional creatures, whom the Slitherer planned to
lead to invade and conquer Earth. They were banished back to a
shadow realm along with the Slitherer afer his defeat.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
¿ 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com